(1) Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a motion recognition system, and more particularly, to a system that recognizes three-dimensional objects and behaviors based on three-dimensional motion data.
(2) Description of Related Art
Many surveillance or active safety applications require sensors for detecting objects and recognizing behaviors (e.g., non-safe actions) in various environments. In most cases, the sensors generate two-dimensional (2D) motion imagery in the visible and infrared (IR) bands. The availability of 3D sensors is increasing recently, but the algorithms handling the 3D data are hardly available and still at their emergent stages. For example, a need exists for automakers to use the 3D data to detect obstacles in motion imagery for control of autonomous vehicles and for active safety applications.
Most vision-based behavior recognition methods in surveillance, gaming or safety systems use 2D imaging sensors which lack 3D depth information. Current object detection and behavior recognition software does not approach human-level performance. For those surveillance and safety applications, the difficulties in detecting and recognizing safety-related events in motion imagery are rooted in the loss of information that occurs when 3D world information is projected into a 2D image.
Although object recognition for stationary objects has been accomplished using 3D Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data, such success has not been equally applied to 3D motion data. Further, not many behavior recognition algorithms have developed for 3D motion data (if any, those that have been developed are for 3D data obtained from stereo imaging).
Thus, a continuing need exists for a system that makes use of full 3D motion data for object detection and behavior recognition, and that is capable of handling behaviors between multiple agents and/or objects.